In many places, cyclists exist in a legal gray area where they are not really vehicles and not pedestrians, and have the legal protection of neither. As I see it, in a lot of places the law is prime for having cyclists shat upon in ways that would never happen to either motorists or pedestrians. In short, we get the short end of the stick. Traffic law leniency towards cyclists is, in a lot of cases, the only fair compensation. </opinion>